#Jakob Tiedtke

[rwpohl]

der vetter aus dingsda, georg zoch 1934

[lifejustgotawkward]

365 Day Movie Challenge (2017) - #180: Kohlhiesel’s Daughters (1920) - dir. Ernst Lubitsch

Seen in a double bill with I Don’t Want to Be Man at the Film Forum during their Ernst Lubitsch retrospective, Kohlhiesel’s Daughters is a charming update of The Taming of the Shrew set in the Bavarian countryside. Henny Porten masterfully portrays both sweet, pretty Gretel and plain-looking, physically imposing Liesel (she is victorious when engaging in fisticuffs with both women and men), the two daughters of Mathias Kohlhiesel (Jakob Tiedtke). When a pair of buddies, Peter Xaver (Emil Jannings) and Paul Seppl (Gustav von Wangenheim) visit the Kohlhiesel tavern and both men immediately fall for lovely Gretel, they are told by Kohlhiesel that Gretel cannot marry until her older sister, Liesel, is wed. Thus a plan is set in motion by Peter to trick mean, ornery Liesel into wedlock, but a number surprising things happen in the process.

Jakob Tiedtke has little to do as old Kohlhiesel, but as I mentioned earlier, Henny Porten does a fantastic job in polar-opposite roles. I am always reluctant to enjoy anything with Emil Jannings, given his troubling history in Third Reich cinema (Porten worked then too, but Jannings’ characters in those Nazi propaganda films seemed even more horrible than the usual), but I cannot deny how enjoyable is here; he clearly relished the physicality of his role, particularly in Peter’s interactions (or, more precisely, showdowns) with Liesel. Gustav von Wangenheim also gives a more naturalistic and charming performance here than in his most famous film, F.W. Murnau’s Nosferatu, a Symphony of Horror (1922), perhaps because he was better-suited to rom-coms than to the horror genre.

P.S. I didn’t mention this in my post on I Don’t Want to Be a Man, but the most fun thing about seeing these two films is that the Film Forum Repertory Director, Bruce Goldstein, read the translations for the untranslated intertitles, and he has a great New York accent. It just made the whole experience even more entertaining. I was also sitting in the very last row, which I never do at the Film Forum, but a) I knew it wouldn’t it matter because I wouldn’t have to read subtitles and b) it was totally empty back there, so it felt really comfortable.

P.P.S. I already mentioned this in another post, but for the sake of the accurate logging of information (which I am obsessed with doing), it was after the Kohlhiesel’s Daughters screening that Ernst Lubitsch’s daughter, Nicola, made an impromptu appearance to sweetly thank the audience for showing up in the torrential downpour that had been going on for hours that night. I also stood next to Nicola at the bathroom sink, but I was too shy to say hello.

[hjfoley]

Kohlhiesel’s Daughters 1920 Kohlhiesels Töchter is a 1920 German silent comedy film directed by Ernst Lubitsch and starring Henny Porten, Emil Jannings and Jakob Tiedtke.

[chubbyalienqueen]

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